A female elephant was caught by locals raiding a government-owned grocery store in Valparai, southern India.

Footage filmed on September 9 shows the elephant using her trunk to break down the wall of the food store.

Villagers blew a siren and made loud noises to scare the animal away but it did not work and the elephant took a bag of rice.

The villagers said elephants do not eat rice but just chew the grain for its salt content and spit it out. They can reportedly easily smell the rice bags kept in grocery shops and head straight to them.